Centralized, online multi-seller interface system

ABSTRACT

A sales portal system supports a plurality of buyer computers used by a corresponding plurality of buyers. The sales portal system supports a first seller&#39;s computer to support sales of a first plurality of products a second seller&#39;s computer to support sales of a second plurality of products. The sales portal accesses first product data from the first seller&#39;s computer and second product data from the second seller&#39;s computer and responds to a query received from one of the plurality of buyer computers by delivering selections from the associated first product data and the associated second product data. The sales portal manages a single sales transaction for a first product of a first seller and a second product of a second seller. The sales portal rates sellers. The sales portal apportions payment, fulfillment, delivery instructions, and other sales components to the first and second sellers.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of the following applications:

U.S. application Ser. No. 13/109,093, filed May 17, 2011, which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/467,557, filed May 18,2009, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,942,316, which is a continuation ofU.S. application Ser. No. 09/808,717, filed Mar. 14, 2001, now issued asU.S. Pat. No. 7,539,628, which is based on and claims the benefit ofU.S. Provisional Nos. 60/214,136, filed Jun. 26, 2000, 60/214,183, filedJun. 26, 2000, and 60/190,825, filed Mar. 21, 2000;

U.S. application Ser. No. 13/224,052, filed Sep. 1, 2011, which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/808,722, filed Mar. 14,2001, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,036,941, which is based on andclaims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Nos. 60/213,912, filed Jun. 26,2000, 60/214,183, filed Jun. 26, 2000, and 60/190,825, filed Mar. 21,2000;

U.S. application Ser. No. 13/104,311, filed May 10, 2011, which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/467,664, filed May 18,2009, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,938,316, which is a continuation ofU.S. application Ser. No. 09/808,723, filed Mar. 14, 2001, now issued asU.S. Pat. No. 7,542,922, which is based on and claims the benefit ofU.S. Provisional Nos. 60/190,825, filed Mar. 21, 2000, 60/214,183, filedJun. 26, 2000, and 60/214,188, filed Jun. 26, 2000; and

U.S. application Ser. No. 09/687,499, filed Oct. 13, 2000, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/547,162, filed Apr.11, 2000, now abandoned, which is based on and claims the benefit ofU.S. Provisional Nos. 60/130,082, filed Apr. 19, 1999, 60/130,083, filedApr. 19, 1999, 60/130,084, filed Apr. 19, 1999; 60/131,008, filed Apr.23, 1999, 60/144,584, filed Jul. 19, 1999, 60/146,208, filed Jul. 28,1999, 60/147,062, filed Aug. 4, 1999, and 60/159,388, filed Oct. 14,1999.

The above-identified applications are all hereby incorporated herein byreference in their entirety and constitute part of the presentapplication.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to online sales and marketing,and, more specifically, to online sales during online purchase on theInternet.

2. Related Art

The past ten years have seen tremendous growth in online Internet sales.Integration of key sales functions into sales software and hardwaresystems account for much of the penetration of online sales systems bymanufacturers, distributors, and retailers. As buyers become morecomfortable with Internet and online credit card processing, and beginto appreciate the associated ease and benefits of online purchasing,online sales revenues should experience exceptional growth. For 1998,online sales reached approximately 60 billion dollars in revenue, whileprojections for 2003 anticipate over 1.4 trillion. Corporate buyers andsellers generate over 90% of such revenues.

Conventional sales systems, such as (1) sales or shopping robot(“shopping bot” or “sales bot”) systems, (2) purported instant rebateand coupon systems, (3) auctioning systems, (4) parallel web hostedsystems, (5) custom sales channel software development, etc., however,are deficient in many respects and offer only partial solutions. Forexample, the above systems require an excessive investment of humanlabor for operation, suffer from inherent and significant deficienciesin performance, and have difficulties in collecting revenue.

More specifically, shopping bots act as a front end to the sales processby attempting to assist an individual buyer in comparison shopping ofitems across sellers on the web. Shopping bots require human intensiveinteraction not only in setting up an interface to each seller's site,but also in the ongoing maintenance of each interface to each seller'ssite. Shopping bots attempt to read and process information from the webpages of each seller's site which are often changed or deleted or movedto a differing URL. Shopping bots also fail to identify new products ateach seller's site without having an employee revisit the seller's site,revisit all the links there, identify new URL's and associated new webpage content, and formulate new interfaces thereto.

Without (and often in spite of) sufficient employee interaction,shopping bots will and do suffer from providing incorrect, incompleteand outdated information. Shopping bots also (1) fail to provideinterfaces with underlying seller product information, e.g., furtherdatabase information involved in the selection process only availableduring buyer purchasing, hypertext linked (“nested”) productinformation, etc., (2) fail to provide interfaces with underlying,backend database information, e.g., inventory, restocking schedules,etc., (3) cannot determine whether or not a purchase was made, making itdifficult to collect revenues, (4) cannot perform credit cardtransaction processing, (5) cannot handle order fulfillment, and so on.

Purported online, instant coupons and rebate sites also suffer with manyof the same deficiencies. For example, without human intervention, nomechanisms exist for (1) verifying that a manufacturer's rebate orcoupon applies to an independent retailer's offering; (2) instantlyapplying such rebates or coupons; (3) placing control in themanufacturer for designating or modifying the number of distributedand/or applied coupons or rebates in real time; and (4) advertising arebate or coupon on any web server selected by the manufacturer withprocessing through another. Thus, purported instant coupon and rebatesites require human intensive processing, and merely vector buyers tosellers' publicly offered web pages that indicate, in a poor attempt atmimicking instant processing, that a coupon is being applied.

Online auction systems also suffer from many of the same problems. Amongsuch problems, and perhaps most importantly, conventional online auctionsystems fail to provide sufficient integration with sellers to enableautomated, effective use of auctioning as a vehicle to “dump” excess ordiscontinued inventory or for promotional purposes.

Custom software development within a wholly controlled sales channelprovides a costly approach for exchanging product information, pricing,etc. When the sales channel is not wholly controlled, such informationis difficult if not impossible to collect. For example, a manufacturemay not be able to afford the cost of integrating with a plurality ofdistributors and retailers that also sell other manufacturers' goods,wherein each use significantly different sales systems that oftenchange.

Many other problems and disadvantages associated with prior systems willbecome apparent to one of skill in the art upon review of such priorsystems and in light of the teachings herein.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an add-on or enhancement to the currente-commerce marketplace. The present invention may integrate into thecurrent online sales or act as a means to replace current onlineretailers that carry no inventory. The present invention enables asystem to position itself between each buyer and seller for everyInternet sales transaction. Such positioning involves offering buyers aunique and exclusive Internet sales presence that simplifies the salesprocess, while providing sellers with better sales information, sellerto seller interaction, and additional sales opportunities. The presentinvention offers a modular product line and application toolkittargeting not only on the independent buyer, but also corporate buyerswhere the majority of sales transactions occur.

Many other aspects and variations of the promotion system of the presentinvention can be appreciated by one of skill in the art through reviewof the detailed description, corresponding drawings, and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DIAGRAMS

The numerous objects and advantages of the present invention may bebetter understood by those skilled in the art by reference to theaccompanying figures in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a Multi-Seller Interface System inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a Multi-Seller Interface Systemwith regard to coupons and rebates offered by a Seller in accordancewith the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a Multi-Seller Interface Systemillustrating multiple distributors and retailers in accordance with thepresent invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a Multi-Seller Interface Systemillustrating a Seller determining the selling price of specific Productsbeing offered for sale by other online Sellers in accordance with thepresent invention;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the Multi-Seller InterfaceSystem's role in the identification of Sellers for a Buyer attempting topurchase products Product A and Product B over the internet in thepresent invention;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating the Multi-Seller Interface Systemcapable of interacting with Seller's systems employing a Sales Bridgesoftware that is installed on each of the Seller's systems in thepresent invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram illustrating various functionalityof a Multi-Seller Interface System's and Seller's systems of the presentinvention;

FIG. 8 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating typical workflow at theMulti-Seller Interface System of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is an exemplary screen layout that a Buyer interacts with inorder to select products and obtain product prices during an onlinepurchasing activity supported by the MSIS in the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a list of products with pricesprovided to Buyer by the MSIS in the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram of buyer and seller systeminteraction with the system of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a functional block diagram of buyer and seller systeminteraction with the Multi-Seller Interface System (MSIS) of the presentinvention;

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating the SalePoint software supporting webbased, interactive access by buyers and sellers through their webclients, and non-web based, automatic access by the sellers through aninterface of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating buyers using their web client softwareto select and request server pages for one of a plurality of applicationservices in the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating the interactions between the softwareand the Seller's system of the present invention;

FIG. 16 illustrates an individual buyer interface system that runs onthe MSIS of the present invention;

FIG. 17 illustrates an Opportunity Management application service thatprovides for up, cross and seller to seller opportunity management forautomated, email-based target marketing without the need to releasebuyer or specific seller information to another participating seller inthe present invention;

FIG. 18 illustrates Supply, Competition & Sales Channel Services(“Channel Services”) offered in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 19 illustrates Supply, Competition & Sales Channel Services(“Channel Services”) offered in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 20 illustrates Sales Promotion Services offered in accordance withthe present invention;

FIG. 21 illustrates an auction function offered in accordance with thepresent invention;

FIG. 22 illustrates a Corporate and Government Bidding Service offeredin accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 23 is a schematic diagram of an Integrated Channel Systemcomprising an Integrated Channel Service Manager, a manufacturerenvironment comprising an Inventory system, a Pricing system, aConfiguration system, and an Order fulfillment system, a Reseller systemfor Reseller A comprising an inventory system and an order system, aReseller system for Distributor B comprising a Seller's system, and aRetailer system for Retailer C comprising a Seller's system inaccordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 24 is a schematic diagram of an Integrated Channel Systemcomprising an Integrated Channel Service Manager and a manufacturerenvironment in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DIAGRAMS

Referring to FIG. 1, when a Buyer (i.e., individuals or businessentities, such as, for example, corporations, distributers, orretailers) desires to purchase several Products (i.e., goods orservices) from a plurality of Sellers (i.e., manufacturers,distributers, or retailers) via the internet 101, the Buyer typicallymust first, via the Buyer's computer 103, search for the Products andlocate the various Sellers online using, for example, a listing site 105and/or search engine 107. The search results may, for example, identifya Seller System 109 that only sells a desired Product A, a Seller'sSystem 111 that only sells a desired Product B, a Seller's System 113that sells both desired Products, a Seller's System 115 that sellsneither of the desired Products and a Seller that maintains a Non-SalesSystem 117. The Buyer, however, does not know which System identifiedwill support the desired purchase until the Buyer undertakes thetime-consuming process of accessing and navigating each of theidentified Seller's Systems. The Buyer must then find the prices for theProducts and select the Seller or Sellers from which to buy theProducts. Often, during the selection process, the Buyer must access andre-access selected Seller's System(s) to compare the Products and theirprices.

In other words, the Buyer is faced with the problem of identifying thetype and model of the Products desired, the Seller(s) that carry them,and whether those Seller(s) support online purchases. In addition, ifthe Buyer eventually identifies several Products that might meet thedesired requirements, the Buyer has no easy way to compare the Productsor their prices, regardless of whether the Buyer is looking for the SameProducts (i.e., identical Products from a single manufacturer sold bymultiple Sellers) or Similar Products (i.e., like Products fromdifferent manufacturers sold by multiple Sellers). Moreover, once theProduct(s) and Seller(s) are finally selected, the Buyer must oftenundertake multiple transactions, with at least one transaction for eachSeller.

The above process is further complicated by the fact that the initialstep of identifying via the internet the desired Products and theSellers who provide the Products is not inherently easy. Search enginesoften provide unorganized results. The Buyer is therefore required toundergo the further time consuming process of sifting through the searchresults just to locate possible matches.

In general, therefore, even though comparing Products and prices byconducting searches using a search engine or listing site (such asExcite or Yahoo) is possible, the process is not very productive,especially if the Buyer wants to specify an upper limit to the price theBuyer is willing to pay for one or more Products. Search queryformulations on typical search engines simply do not enable a Buyer tospecify upper limits for Product prices. In addition, as mentionedabove, if a Buyer locates one or more Sellers, the Buyer must interactwith each one individually, and often sequentially, to determine if apurchase can be made. Of course, no two sales systems picked at randomare likely to be similar. Therefore, the Buyer must learn to query thesales system of each and every Seller.

To make matters more complicated, Buyers often like to receive quotesfor the cost of purchasing a set of Products from different Sellerswithout having to consummate any purchase right away. The Buyer isusually not permitted to save such quotes at the Sellers' System,requiring the Buyer to re-request quotes every time the System isaccessed. This problem is compounded when a Buyer identifies Productsdesired from different Sellers and views quotes for some of thoseProducts without the ability to save any of the quotes for subsequentaccess and use.

Even if a Buyer prints quotes provided by multiple Sellers, if the Buyerwants to change the desired Product list and generate a new quote forthe changed Product list from a particular Seller, the Buyer is oftenrequired to interact with that Seller's online Sales System to enter theinformation all over again. In the rare situation where a Seller allowsa Buyer to save quotes for some duration, those saved quotes are likelyto be discarded by the Seller after a period of suspended salesactivity.

Once the Buyer finally gets to the point of actually purchasing Productsvia the internet, the Buyer must interact with each Seller individually,and sequentially, to provide the Buyer's shipping information and creditcard related information. Usually, the Buyer is prompted to provide suchinformation before the Buyer can consummate a purchase. If the amountquoted by an online Seller for the currently selected Products from aBuyer's list is larger than the available credit on the credit cardprovided by the Buyer, the sales activity is often terminated. Even whenthe Buyer is in possession of multiple credit cards and their combinedavailable credit exceeds the quoted amount for a Products list, it isoften not possible for the Buyer to complete the purchase due to theinability of the online Sales System of the Seller to handle suchcomplicated transactions.

In addition to the problems discussed above, a Buyer that is also acorporation experiences its own unique set of problems when it buys inbulk from online Sellers. For example, the Buyer often must havesufficient storage capacity to house the Product purchased before theProduct can be distributed. In addition, when a Buyer is purchasing andstoring the Product as such, the Buyer is often paying a higher pricefor the Product than it would have paid if the Buyer had simply waitedand bought the Product when the Buyer was ready to distribute it. Thisis particularly true of high technology Products, such as, for example,computers, whose prices drop rapidly as the state of the art improves.Thus, it is often desirable for a Buyer to determine the cost ofpurchasing just some of the desired Products in the near future asopposed to purchasing them all at a current time period. There iscurrently no online sales system in widespread usage that enables aBuyer to obtain graduated quotes as such. Consequently, the advantagesof buying in bulk online are often vitiated.

Additionally, when a Seller sells one or more Products to a Buyer on theinternet, there is often an opportunity for the Seller, or for otherSellers, to sell a related but distinct item to the Buyer that isperhaps available at another Seller's online Sales System. For example,a Buyer purchasing a computer from an online Seller may also be in themarket for a computer desk and a computer chair. However, nearly allsuch sales opportunities go undetected and untapped because Sellers donot have the ability or motivation to automatically share sales relatedactivity information with each other.

Further, if a Seller has built up inventory of one or more Products thatit wants to dispose of at an accelerated rate, it has no means tooffload such inventory online.

Small Sellers experience even more difficulty in selling Products onlineBefore even buying Products via the internet, Buyers generally need tohave confidence in the Sellers, which may not be the case unless theseller is well known or has a good reputation. Absent such confidence,Buyers may decide to pay a higher price simply for the comfort ofdealing with a known Seller.

In addition, small online Sellers often do not have the Sales Systemsnecessary to provide online sales support. Such online Sales Systemsoften require web hosting services, product configuration and pricingdatabases, credit-card processing systems, etc. Small online Sellersoften purchase web-hosting and sales support services from internetservice providers or from online malls. However, Buyers can only get tosuch Seller's Sales System when Buyers locate and subsequently migrateto them for browsing.

Sellers often provide coupons and rebates as an incentive to promotesales of specific Products. Sellers who offer coupons on the internetexperience their own unique set of problems. More specifically,referring to FIG. 2, in a typical scenario, a manufacturer 201 firstmust speculate to identify the timing, amount and quantity of eachrebate and coupon. The manufacturer 201 creates and delivers paperrebates/coupons to a distributor 203, who forwards the paperrebates/coupons to a retailer 205. The manufacturer 201 may deliver thepaper rebates/coupons directly to the retailer 205. To use arebate/coupon, the retailer 205 must modify their product database, webserver content, and, possibly, their sales application. This burden,along with the burden of having to collect from the manufacturer 201,dissuades the retailer 205 from participating in the rebate/couponprocess.

Alternatively, the manufacturer may use a third party 207 to deliver thecoupons/rebates directly to the Buyer.

In addition, Sellers who provide coupons and rebates for Products on theinternet often do not have the ability to control the amounts dispensedor to whom they are dispensed. This often leads to problems when toomany, or too few, rebates/coupons, are dispensed online by a Seller. Amanufacturer desires to determine the rate at which the rebates/couponsare accessed and redeemed by Buyers so as to alter the volume ofrebates/coupons offered or discount given. However, rebates offered onthe internet cannot be easily tracked, and without such tracking, aSeller cannot determine when to alter the rebate/coupon value or thenumber of rebates/coupons dispensed.

Furthermore, in most situations, retail Sellers on the internet do nothave the ability or the facility to honor rebates supplied bymanufacturers or distributors. This is also true for coupons. Buyers arethen left with no option for redeeming such coupons and rebates. In thecase of rebates, Buyers might be able to send the rebates along with theBuyer's sales receipts to manufacturers via post (snail mail) andsubsequently redeem them via post.

Additionally, when Buyers are typically provided a quote by the onlinesales system of online Sellers for the products selected for purchase,the Buyers have the option to cancel the transactions and not purchaseany Products. When they choose not to consummate a sale after a quote isprovided to them, the Sellers do not have a second opportunity toprovide a better quote or “sweeten the deal”, causing the Seller to losea potential sale.

After receiving the Products purchased from various Sellers, if theBuyer is interested in registering the Products with the manufacturersfor technical support reasons or for Product update reasons, the Buyermust typically fill in registration cards and mail them to themanufacturers via post (snail mail). In the case of software purchasedover the internet, the buyer if often prompted by the software duringits installation to fill in a registration form full of questions. Suchonline registrations for each software purchased are a chore that Buyersoften bypass at the risk of foregoing tech support from themanufacturer.

In general, without registering the product purchased, Buyers are notlikely to receive warranty support or tech support. If Buyers areinterested in registering the Product purchased with the manufacturer,the Buyer must mail receipts of the Products purchased, and sometimeseven proofs of purchase, such as barcodes, along with registrationcards, to the manufacturer. If a Buyer misplaces either the receipt orthe registration card, registering the products with the manufacturersis very difficult.

When manufacturers offer rebates on specific Products, the Buyer, ingeneral, must mail in the rebates that apply to the Products purchased.Again, mailing in rebates to manufacturers requires an investment oftime and energy. For rebates being offered over the internet, Sellersmust request and collect the information, print it, and mail it withreceipts and sales information for redemption.

The problems related to redemption of rebates are in some ways similarto the problems with the redemption of coupons. Even if buyers canlocate coupons for some of the products that they intend to buy on theinternet, typically there is no easy way to redeem them on internetpurchases.

Referring now to FIG. 3, quite often, manufacturers of products employseveral distributors and retailers to sell their products. Often thesedistributors and retailers have their own internet sales presence andendeavor to sell the manufacturers products on the internet. One of thecommon problems faced by these distributors and retailers is theirinability to assure Buyers of the availability of products, whether theproduct is coming from theirs or the manufacturer's inventory. Thiscauses problems during order fulfillment activities after a Buyer makesa purchase and delay in delivery follows. Manufacturers do not have theability to determine the sales executed by their various retailers anddistributors. This causes the Seller problems in determining productiontargets.

Often, a Seller would want to determine the selling price of specificProducts being offered for sale by other online Sellers (see, e.g. FIG.4). This, however, is not easy. Such information may be gathered byvisiting the online sales sites of various vendors and browsing orexecuting queries on each of those sales sites to extract pricinginformation. This solution does not scale up.

If manufacturers want to control the flow of rebates in an automatedway, they require information, such as the volume of sales, from theirdistributors and retailers. In the online internet based salesenvironment, coupons and rebates dispensed to Buyers cannot be easilytracked and reported, especially if the individual distributors andretailers have online sales systems that don't interact with each otherand don't communicate information easily, as is the situation when theyall have heterogeneous sales environments. A related problem is one ofdetermining the sale prices for similar products from differentretailers and distributors that sell the same family of products from amanufacturer.

Quite often, third party web-hosting companies host online sales systemsfor multiple vendors, some of whom might be involved in selling Similaror Same Products (see e.g., FIG. 3), If online vendors have to determineprices of similar Products or the same Products sold by theircompetition, it is often difficult to obtain such information in atimely manner even when the competing vendors are hosted by the sameweb-hosting service provider. Among other reasons for this, oneimportant reason is the fact that each vendor employs their ownproprietary tools and system design to store product information,customer information, sales information etc.

If a product manufacturer, their distributors and retailers each managetheir own online sales system, then it is difficult for them tocorrelate similar or the same information contained in each of theirsystems. If they choose to install and use similar sales systems toalleviate this problem, then the distributors and retailers are eitherconstrained to carrying products from that single manufacturer or theyare forced to support several such manufacturer specific proprietarysales systems. Therefore, in order to minimize the number of such salessystems that they have to support and interact with and yet not limitthemselves to a few manufacturers, distributors and retailers are oftenforced to maintain their own individual and customized sales system thatis not necessarily tied to any individual manufacturer. By doing so,they encounter the problems of correlation of data in their salessystems and in those of the manufacturers.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the Multi-Seller Interface System's503 role in the identification of Seller's for a Buyer attempting topurchase products Product A and Product B over the internet. The Buyer,using the Buyer's computer 501, interacts with the Multi-SellerInterface System 503 to specify information about the products Product Aand Product B that he intends to purchase from online Sellers on theinternet. The Multi-Seller Interface System 503 identifies the variousSeller's systems based on the category of products the Sellers carry,the Seller's capability to provide quality goods and services, and othercriteria. For example, the Multi-Seller Interface System's (MSIS) 503identifies Seller's systems 511, 513, 515 as those that are capable ofselling one or more products desired by the Buyer. It also determinesthat the Seller's System 517 is incapable of selling one or moreproducts desired by the Buyer and that the Non-Sales System 519 shouldbe ignored for possible sales transactions initiated by the Buyer.

The Buyer's computer 501 interacts with the MSIS 503 via internet 523.Similarly, the MSIS 503 interacts with the Seller's systems 511, 513,515, 517 and 519 via internet 523. Optionally, the MSIS 503 may chooseto interact with any of the Seller's systems 511, 513, 515, 517 and 519via a dedicated network or via an intranet.

Typically, in response to a Buyer's selection of product categories, theMSIS 503 sends queries to one or more Seller's systems 511, 513, 515,517, 519 to extract product and pricing information from thecorresponding Seller's system. In response, the Seller's systemstypically return shopping carts filled with those Buyer specifiedproducts that they are capable of selling, along with prices for theproducts and, optionally, their inventory of the products.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the Multi-Seller Interface System's603 capable of interacting with Seller's systems 607, 615, 617 employinga Sales Bridge software 611 that is installed on each of the Seller'ssystems 607, 615, 617. The Sales Bridge software 611 is used by the MSIS603 to execute queries sent to the Seller's systems 609, 615, 617 fromthe MSIS 603 and, in response, return shopping carts with prices back tothe MSIS 603. In general, the Sales Bridge 611 is used by the MSIS 603as a remote database layer that is capable of translating queriesreceived from the MSIS 603 into queries and processes that retrieve therequested information, such as configuration, pricing and inventory,from the Seller's Sales software 609.

A Buyer using a Buyer's computer 601 interacts with the MSIS 603 overinternet 605 to specify queries related to products that he intends topurchase. Such interactions typically involve navigating down ahierarchy of product categories to identify those that the Buyer isinterested in, or specifying a search criteria via a search interface toextract information on products and product categories and to identifyrelevant product categories.

FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram illustrating various functionalityof a Multi-Seller Interface System's 703 and Seller's systems 719 and721. The MSIS 703 includes one or more web server software 709 withwhich Buyer's computers 701 interact, one or more Application serversoftware 711 that provide various Sales services to buyers accessingthem over internet 705 and one or more Sales databases 713 that is usedto save various kinds of information such as customer profile, savedquotes, product categories, etc.

Among other things, the MSIS also supports product category selection,search query formulation, instant coupon and rebate processing, shoppingcart comparison, composite shopping cart review, shopping cart pricingand saved quote repricing, quote persistence and query persistence,scheduled delivery information from Buyers, customer profile autotransactions, opportunity management and sales agent support, automaticregistration of products on behalf of Buyers, Warranty management. Inaddition, it also includes Sales Bridge software interface that makes itpossible to interact with Seller's systems 719 and 721.

Seller's systems 719 comprises a Seller's sales software 735 and a SalesBridge software 723. The Seller's Sales software 735 includes a webserver software 729, an Application server software 731 and a Salesdatabases 733. The Sales Bridge software 723 comprises a Query Bridge725 and a Transaction Bridge 727.

The Query Bridge 725 is used to query one or more Sales databases 733using queries formulated by the MSIS 703 or queries created from searchinformation sent by the MSIS 703. Information extracted by the QueryBridge 725 is communicated to the MSIS 703 over communication links 737.The Transaction Bridge 727 is typically employed by the MSIS 703 toconduct credit-card based sales transactions with the Seller's system719.

FIG. 8 is an exemplary flow chart showing typical work flow at theMulti-Seller Interface System's 703. At a block 801, the MSIS 703attempts to generate a sale employing automatic marketing and salesfunctionality. These activities include emailing potential buyersinformation such as saved persistent quotes, current inventoryinformation, quote updates based on repricing existing quotes, productupgrades that might have become available, up and cross-sellingopportunity detection from an individual Seller's sales activity or frommonitoring sales activities across multiple Sellers. The automaticmarketing and sales functionality activities also include directedadvertising, coupon and rebate delivery to potential Buyers based onBuyer profile provided by Buyers or based on information gathered bytracking Buyer's buying habits.

Later, at a block 803, the MSIS 703 assists Buyers in generating a queryfor subsequent submission of those queries to Seller's systems. Queriescan take the form of old saved quotes or shopping carts, couponsselected, rebates selected, query text, third party shopping carts,sales brochures, persistent queries, etc.

Later, at a block 805, the MSIS 703 preprocesses Buyer specified queriesand delivers them to selected Seller systems that are identified basedon one or more search criteria including, in some cases, productcategories, customer profiles, etc. Some of these queries areselectively cached in memory by the MSIS 703.

When the Seller's systems respond with product and pricing information,for example, with priced shopping carts that include all or a subset ofthe Buyer's product list, the MSIS 703 presents the information to Buyerfor interaction with the Buyer. Optionally, such information ispresented as a comparison of products and prices. If a customer's queryfails to retrieve results from Seller's systems, the MSIS 703 makes atransition to the block 801.

Otherwise, the MSIS 703 continues to a block 809 where it responds toBuyer's selection and acceptance of product prices by interacting withnone or more corresponding Seller's systems to complete the salestransactions. Subsequently, at a block 811, the MSIS 703 performs postsales functions which selectively includes registration, warranties,updates, maintenance contracts, opportunity management etc. Opportunitymanagement is employed to generate additional sales or repeat sales.

FIG. 9 is an exemplary screen layout that a Buyer interacts with inorder to select products and obtain product prices during an onlinepurchasing activity supported by the MSIS 703. The MSIS presents a Buyerwith a screen of information that includes a button for Query terms thatthe Buyer can select from, a button for Query Text that is optionallyentered by the user to facilitate product and price searches, a buttonthat when activated, results in sending a query to one or more Seller'ssystems, and a button that makes it possible to view the hits followingthe receipt of responses to Buyer's queries.

FIG. 10 is a diagram that shows a list of products with prices providedto Buyer by the MSIS 703. It shows a comparison of prices, for productsacquired from two different shopping carts. In this exemplary scenario,products bought from two different Sellers add up to a total that isless than the total quoted by another single Seller. Addition, theSellers are rated, with asterisks (**) indicating the ratings.

FIG. 11 provides a functional block diagram of buyer and seller systeminteraction with the system of the present invention. Therein, thesystem comprises a web based, Multi-Seller Interface System (MSIS) and aplurality of Sales Bridge Software (SBS) modules through which buyer'scomputers can simultaneously access many independent and differingsellers' sales systems.

To interact with the system of the present invention, a buyer, corporateor individual, merely accesses web pages provided by the MSIS withconventional web browser software on the buyer's computer. The buyerinteracts with the MSIS to define queries relating to one or moredesired products. The MSIS automatically attempts to identify those ofthe plurality of participating sellers that might carry such products.Once defined, each query is simultaneously communicated by the MSIS toeach of Seller's Sales System (SSS) via the SBS modules of theidentified ones of the plurality of participating sellers. Using a querybridging approach, each SBS module performs a search of product,pricing, inventory, etc., database(s) based on the query. All salesinformation relating to each product identified in the search isdelivered to the MSIS for the buyer's review, comparison and selection.The MSIS permits concurrent selection and single transaction purchasingof products from more than one seller. Caching of common queries on aday to day basis is also supported by the MSIS to minimize communicationoverhead.

The sales information returned from each SSS represents complete, realtime public and private sales information, catering not only toindividual buyers, but, more importantly, to sellers. For example, inresponse to queries from individual buyers or competitors, the querybridge of the present invention may easily be configured to deliverpublic information such as pricing and product descriptions. For queriesgenerated within a selling channel (i.e., by a manufacturer, distributoror retailer or by their sales systems), private information relating toeach product such as inventory, inventory projections, numbers sold,margins, etc., may be easily and automatically exchanged. Suchinformation can be used for forecasting inventory, pricing, planningpromotional activities (e.g., instant coupons, auctioning and rebateprograms), and production planning, for example.

The MSIS supports query definition in several ways to provide the buyerwith greatly needed yet currently unavailable functionality. Forexample, through a category selection process and/or textual search termentry, a buyer can construct a query to simultaneously retrieve from allsellers all underlying product sales information matching the query. Thebuyer can also generate a query from online rebate and couponinformation for true instant processing, unlike current online rebateand coupon vendors who incorrectly claim to do the same. Queries may begenerated from third party seller shopping carts for comparison withparticipating sellers' products. Saved quotes may be converted toqueries for updating and verification, and may be used as a persistentbasis via sales email for attempting to complete the transaction withthe buyer. Further, queries may be generated from advertisinginformation, e.g., online auction descriptions, online sales brochures,etc., whether or not such information originates within the MSIS.

Selling channel systems also generate queries in a number of, ways withor without interaction through a web client (user interface). Automaticdata gathering between participants in the selling channel will permitan application (based on a toolkit) to automatically (1) place orsuggest placing orders to replenish inventory, (2) identify new productofferings, (3) suggest pricing changes, (4) facilitate just in timedelivery, (5) identify and/or maintain appropriate inventory levels, (6)suggest or carry out changes or additions to advertising and promotionalprograms, (7) schedule release of upgraded or superseding products, etc.Competing selling channel systems may also be queried (automatically orotherwise) to gather public information regarding competing productlines. Such information may be used to supplement the automaticprocesses identified in items 1-7 above, for example. A toolkitunderlying the MSIS simplifies preparation of application software tocarry out such and other processes. Such application software may run onany or all system(s) within a sales channel. In fact, such applicationsoftware, or portions thereof, may be placed at many locations within asingle organization to carry out internal, enterprise sales functions.

The toolkit underlying the MSIS also provides for up, cross and sellerto seller opportunity management for automated, email-based targetmarketing without the need to release buyer information to aparticipating seller. For example, the MSIS permits a first seller toestablish relationships between completed and/or queried salestransactions within categories and/or by a specified second seller.Based thereon, predefined email is automatically sent to buyers orpotential buyers advertising sales of the first seller's products thatrelate to the category or to the second seller's product.

From a buyer's online perspective, the MSIS performs a singletransaction (e.g., credit card) processing of multiple productselections spanning more than one seller. Based on final configuration,the underlying transaction may actually involve (1) a plurality oftransaction processes between each seller and the buyer using thebuyer's credit card information, and/or (2) a single credit cardtransaction for the total from the buyer to the MSIS along with aplurality of transaction processes with each seller involving accountinformation of the MSIS.

As part of the sales transaction, or in follow up thereto, the MSISperforms automated registration, warranty delivery and acceptance,maintenance contract offerings and purchases, and emailed productinformation regarding updates and upgrades services. Stored buyerprofiles minimize buyer interaction required to carry out salestransactions and such associated services. Stored buyer transactionrecords enable targeted email advertising, persistent query support,opportunity management, etc.

The MSIS can, upon a seller's request and in addition to or inreplacement of the seller's sales system, perform transaction and/orother sales processing for the seller. In addition, the MSIS provideseach seller with real time access to product sales information from theseller's competitors and own sales chain. The query protocol and the SBSenable a corporate buyer to develop specifically desired salesinterfaces into one or more seller systems. The underlying functionalityand software libraries used in the MSIS may be specifically licensed forsuch purpose. Corporate buyers are also supported through scheduledpurchasing and just in time delivery functionality within the MSIS.

The present invention may generate revenue by taking a percentage ofeach completed sales transaction conducted through the MSIS. To generatefurther revenue, the MSIS tracks each buyer's use of the web-site,whether or not a transaction is completed, and offers to provide sellerswith information for potential future sales opportunities. Similarly,the System offers instant rebate and coupon processing, direct emailtargeted sales, advertising space, and persistence in exchange fortransaction percentages. Credit card processing, delivery tracking,customer support, and other backend sales functions can be offered,generating further revenue streams.

The System may be based on web server and application server softwareproducts offered by Trilogy Development Group, a company located inAustin, Tex.

FIG. 12 provides a functional block diagram of buyer and seller systeminteraction with the Multi-Seller Interface System (MSIS) of the presentinvention. The MSIS comprises SalePoint and SaleBridge Software. TheSalePoint software runs on one or more conventional web and applicationservers to provide a multi-seller interface.

The SaleBridge software is placed on each seller's online sales systemto bridge communication between the SalePoint software and each seller'sonline sales databases and applications. Buyers may then simultaneouslyaccess many independent and different seller's sales systems. Similarly,groups of sellers (within one or more sales channels) can easily andautomatically share sales and product information.

As shown in FIG. 13, the SalePoint software will support web based,interactive access by buyers and sellers through their web clients, andnon-web based, automatic access by the sellers through an interface.

The SaleBridge software uses both query and transaction bridgingfunctionality to couple each seller's system with the SalePointsoftware. Alternatively, such bridging functionality may be partially orentirely integrated into the seller's system.

FIGS. 14 and 15 are detailed drawings of the SalePoint and SaleBridgesoftware. As shown in FIG. 14, buyers use their web client software(e.g., a browser) to select and request server pages for one of aplurality of application services. A web server and server scriptenvironment responds by serving html files, server pages and images thatcorrespond to the selected application service. The server pagesexecuted by the environment typically incorporate method invocations onobjects stored in an object layer or object backbone and associateddatabases. In addition, the server pages identify transaction logic forthe selected application service.

For each of the application services, transaction logic (a high levelscripting language) is written to include a sequence of tasks that eachmanipulate data or objects, with each of the tasks executed byunderlying task specific transaction logic or compiled code (hereinaftera “workflow object”), or both. Although transaction logic isspecifically written for each of the application services, many of theworkflow objects and underlying task specific transaction logic areshared by different application services.

Some examples of the application services contemplated by the presentinvention can be found with reference to FIGS. 16-22 below. The tasksexecuted by the transaction logic engine may include, for example,credit card related transactions, database searches, database updates,remote transactions executed on one or more seller's systems, etc.

The transaction logic engine interacts with several other web servercomponents of the SalePoint Software, such as a query generator,scheduling component, usage tracking, management component, emailcomponent, 3rd party web server interface, credit card processinginterface and a remote transaction handler. The query generator createsqueries based on information provided by buyer, data retrieved fromdatabase(s), information provided via method invocations from non-webserver interface, etc. The queries generated by the query generator areselectively sent to SaleBridge software associated with remote Seller'ssystems to extract various kinds of sales information.

The scheduling component is used to periodically initiate various tasks,transaction logic, and activities such as reporting or re-pricing, etc.For example, a buyer or seller can schedule various activities andspecify when and how frequently they should be executed throughassociated application services. The schedules and the activities aresaved in databases by the scheduling component for subsequent retrievaland execution by the transaction logic engine.

Although usage tracking might have been implemented via transactionlogic, it is implemented as a separate component to collect, process andreport information regarding the use of the SalePoint Software by buyersand sellers. The usage tracking component provides information onproducts sold by various sellers, product sales volume, type of productsbeing sold, inventory information, and various other sales relatedinformation. The usage tracking component provides information withdifferent levels of granularity, as required and authorized by variousbuyers and sellers.

The management component is used to manage various activities, scheduledor unscheduled, for buyers and sellers. It is also used to manageinitializations, application service deployment, updates, recycling, andshutdown of various resources.

The email component is used to send email to one or more buyers or buyergroups after the processing of certain events or after the execution ofa scheduled or unscheduled transaction logic command. It is also used tosend various information, such as, for example, buyer purchasing andquery profiles, to sellers and to email promotional material such ascoupons and rebates to one or more buyers.

The 3rd party web server interface is used to interact with remote webservers to retrieve or to provide various kinds of information. Usingthis interface, it is possible to interact with remote web servers justlike web clients on those web servers.

The credit card processing component is used to interact or conducttransactions with remote credit card processing units. Such remotecredit card processing units may be located at seller's environments orincorporated into a seller's system. The credit card processingcomponent enables a buyer to selectively spread purchases over one ormore credit cards owned by the buyer, and to spread a buyer's shoppingcart purchase over several sellers.

The remote transaction handler provides support for interactions withSaleBridge Software installed with one or more remote seller's salessystems. It employs one or more communication mechanisms such as RemoteMethod Invocation (RMI), Common Object Request Broker Architecture(CORBA), TCPIIP, Voyager, etc., to communicate with remote software andretrieve information. Remote SaleBridge Software can initiatecommunications with the SalePoint Software in order to retrieveinformation, provide information, or request some service. It alsosupports communication with external systems such as third partycredit-card systems and monitoring tools.

FIG. 15 shows the interactions between the SaleBridge software and theSeller's system. The seller's system may have its own web server toprovide an interface to web clients. The seller's system also typicallyincorporates seller's database that comprise, among other things,product, promotional, order fulfillment, product registration, warrantyand customer databases. An object layer on top of the database layerenables the application layer to manipulate objects.

The seller's system may also contain the seller's non-web applications,web based applications, and card processing application. The SaleBridgeSoftware may also interact with the seller's applications to extractproduct, pricing and inventory information as well as to conductcredit-card based transactions.

If the seller's system includes a web server, the SaleBridge Softwaremay also provide a web based application bridge to assist the querybridge in extracting product, pricing and inventory information. Thequery bridge is responsible for mapping or translating queries sent bySalePoint Software into one or more queries executable on the seller'sdatabases to retrieve, and possibly update, information in the seller'sdatabases.

The SaleBridge Software also provides a non-web based application bridgeto extract information from the seller's system via the seller's non-webapplications interface. The non-web based application bridge is employedvia an interface supporting remote access based on CORBA, RMI, etc.

The SaleBridge software also includes a transaction bridge that can beused to interact with the seller's card processing application toprocess credit card purchases. For example, a buyer's credit card andshopping cart related information may be communicated to the seller'scard processing application to complete a transaction for the buyer.

FIG. 16 illustrates an individual buyer interface system, SaleBlazerthat runs on the MSIS. The interface may also be tailored to thecorporate buyer, with extended functionality supporting, for example,scheduled buying and just-in-time delivery.

To interact with the SaleBlazer service, a buyer merely usesconventional web browser software on the buyer's computer. The buyerinteracts to define a query relating to one or more desired products.The SaleBlazer service via the SalePoint Software identifies those ofthe plurality of participating sellers that might carry such products.Once defined, the SalePoint Software simultaneously communicates thequery to SaleBridge Software at each of the identified participatingsellers.

Using the query and transaction bridging approach of the presentinvention, each SaleBridge Software component performs a search ofproduct, pricing, inventory, etc., databases based on the query. Allsales information relating to each product identified in the search isdelivered to the SalePoint Software for presentation to the buyer. Thebuyer may review, compare and select one or more of the productsreturned from one or more of the participating sellers. Caching ofcommon queries on a day to day basis will also be supported by theSaleBlazer service to minimize communication overhead.

From an individual buyer's online perspective, the SaleBlazer servicewill perform a single transaction (e.g., credit card) processing ofmultiple product selections spanning more than one seller. Based onfinal configuration, the underlying transaction may actually involve (1)a plurality of transaction processes between each seller and the buyerusing the buyer's credit card information, and/or (2) a single creditcard transaction for the total from the buyer to the MSIS along with aplurality of transaction processes with each seller involving accountinformation of the MSIS.

As part of the sales transaction or in follow up thereto, the SaleBlazerservice will perform automated registration, warranty delivery andacceptance, maintenance contract offerings and purchases, and emailedproduct information regarding updates and upgrades services. Storedbuyer profiles will minimize buyer interaction required to carry outsales transaction and such associated services.

FIG. 17 illustrates an Opportunity Management application service thatprovides for up, cross and seller to seller opportunity management forautomated, email based target marketing without the need to releasebuyer or specific seller information to another participating seller.For example, the Opportunity Management service will permit a firstseller to contact a buyer that has completed a sales transaction for aproduct of a second seller. Similarly, a buyer showing interest but notbuying one of a seller's products, can be automatically contacted viaemail offering another of the seller's products. The buyer may choose toremain anonymous and still receive such email through our emailforwarding functionality of the Opportunity Management service.

FIGS. 18 and 19 illustrate Supply, Competition & Sales Channel Services(“Channel Services”) offered in accordance with the present invention.Each seller's sales system contains complete, real time public andprivate sales information. The Channel Services will provide eachparticipating seller with access to other participating seller's salesinformation. For example, in response to manually or automaticallygenerated queries from a seller, the Channel Services instantly deliverpublic information such as pricing and product descriptions fromcompeting participating sellers. For queries generated within a saleschannel (i.e., by a manufacturer and the manufacture's distributors andretailers), private information relating to each product such asinventory, inventory projections, numbers sold, margins, etc., can beinstantly exchanged. Such public and private information will also beused by SFA (Sales Force Automation), ERP (Enterprise ResourcePlanning), and SC (Supply Channel) tool vendors to forecastinginventory, pricing, promotional activities (e.g., instant coupons,auctioning and rebate programs), and production planning, for example.

FIG. 20 illustrates Sales Promotion Services offered in accordance withthe present invention. Using the Sales Promotion Services, a buyer cangenerate a query from online rebate and coupon information for trueinstant processing, unlike current online rebate and coupon vendors whoincorrectly claim to do the same. Further, queries may be generated fromadvertising information, e.g., online auction descriptions, online salesbrochures, etc., whether or not such information originates within theMSIS.

FIG. 21 illustrates an auction function offered in accordance with thepresent invention. The MSIS supports auctioning of products by one ormore Seller's in an environment where a Buyer using a Web Client(s) canmake a bid for one or more products put up for auction by a Seller viathe Seller's Web Client software. The Sellers typically employ AuctionPosting to which Buyers send bids. The MSIS Running Auction Applicationmaintains bids offered by potential Buyers for one or more AuctionPostings put up for auction by Sellers. When the Seller selects one ormore Buyers to consummate an auction sale, the MSIS makes it possible toexecute credit-card based transactions employing the Credit CardProcessing Service and one or more Credit Card Companies.

FIG. 22 illustrates a Corporate and Government Bidding Service offeredin accordance with the present invention. The MSIS can be used as a bidprocessing system to support bidding by multiple Seller's to meet therequirements of Buyers, typically corporate buyers. The MSIS RunningBidding Application interacts with multiple Sellers who can participatein the bidding process in response to a bid request posting (BRP) fromBuyers. Buyers or Requesters can access bidding information on the MSISvia the Requester's Web Client. Using the Bidder's Web Client, Bidderscan review or selectively change their bids and also review the statusof the BRP.

SaleBridge Software on Bidder's System is employed by the MSIS tointeract with the bidder's system and periodically update information onthe status on bids. In addition, the inventory of various productsavailable on the bidder's system is selectively accessed by the MSIS viathe SaleBridge.

Requesters using a Requester's Web Client and Bidders using a Bidder'sWeb Client may interact with the MSIS via an Affiliated Bidding Web &App Server, which selectively sends Requests or bids to the MSIS andprovides information about them to Requesters and Bidders. Similarly,3rd Party Bidding Web & App Servers employ the services of the MSIS tosave bid-related information and to conduct the bid resolutionactivities. The various participants in the request and bidding processare periodically informed about the status of the bids via email. Whenbids are decided and the Requester selects a Bidder, say a lowestbidder, the MSIS facilitates the execution of the transactions toconsummate the purchase of the products by the Requester.

In one embodiment, the MSIS automatically provides to the Requester areference bid that comprises lowest bids for individual products frommultiple Bidders, thereby assembling the lowest total bid to be used,whether as a reference or as an actual bid which can be used forpurchase by the Requester. Multiple Sellers may be included in such areference bid. When multiple Bidders are selected by a Requester, whereeach Bidder supplies part of the Request, the MSIS facilitates thecompletion of the purchase by the Request from multiple Bidders.

FIG. 23 is a schematic diagram of an Integrated Channel Systemcomprising an Integrated Channel Service Manager, a manufacturerenvironment comprising an Inventory system, a Pricing system, aConfiguration system, and an Order fulfillment system, a Reseller systemfor Reseller A comprising an inventory system and an order system, aReseller system for Distributor B comprising a Seller's system, and aRetailer system for Retailer C comprising a Seller's system. Inaddition, a retailer sales system for Retailer C is also incorporated.

In general, the Integrated Channel Service Manager communicates withSalesBridge software integrated with individual Seller systems.Specifically, the Integrated Channel Service Manager communicates withthe SalesBridge software installed with each of the Seller systems,namely, the manufacturer environment, Reseller A, Distributor B, andRetailer C.

More specifically, the Integrated Channel Service Manager sends queriesrelated to order status, inventory levels, pricing and productconfiguration to the manufacturer environment and receives informationfrom the manufacturer environment. It also selectively sends informationrelated to product sales, pricing, inventory, order status, etc.retrieved from Reseller A and Distributor B to the manufacturerenvironment. In addition, the Integrated Channel Service Managerfacilitates the selective exchange of sales, inventory, pricing,configuration, order status, etc. between the manufacturer environment,the Reseller A, Distributor B and Retailer C. Such selective exchange ofinformation between the manufacturer environment, Reseller A andReseller B occurs via the SalesBridge software integrated with theirrespective systems, under the supervision or control of the IntegratedChannel Service Manager.

As discussed above, quite often, manufacturers of products employseveral distributors, resellers and retailers to sell their products.Often these distributors and retailers have their own internet salespresence and endeavor to sell the manufacturers products on theinternet. One of the common problems faced by these distributors andretailers is their inability to assure Buyers of the availability ofproducts, whether the product is coming from their own or themanufacturer's inventory. This causes problems during order fulfillmentactivities after a Buyer makes a purchase and delay in delivery follows.In general, manufacturers do not have the ability to determine the salesexecuted by their various retailers and distributors. This causes (theSeller) problems in determining production targets.

These problems are solved by integrating the sales, order fulfillmentand manufacturing systems of all sellers in the channel, as shown, forexample, in FIG. 23. Such integration is facilitated by the IntegratedChannel service Manager and the individual SalesBridge softwareincorporated in the software of each of the partners in the channel.

Specifically, in the manufacturing environment, in accordance with thepresent invention, the sales systems of manufacturers and theirdistributors is integrated with (a) the order fulfillment systems of themanufacturer and all the resellers and distributors, (b) the inventorymanagement systems of the manufacturer, (c) the pricing systems of themanufacturer(s) and distributors (d) the promotion systems of allSellers, and (e) the Configuration systems of the manufacturer which maybe shared by all the distributors and resellers. This makes it possibleto not only provide the ability to fulfill orders for an individualBuyer from multiple sellers (i.e. one or more distributors andmanufacturers) but also the ability to incorporate different pricingschemes and promotional schemes in fulfilling the order. In addition,such integration makes it possible to incorporate information about theinventory levels of the manufacturer and distributors in determining thedelivery date and shipping costs for the Buyer.

In an environment where a manufacturer is not directly involved, such asin a sales environment incorporating a large master reseller and theirdistributors and retailers, the sales systems of master resellers andtheir distributors and retailers is integrated with each Seller's (a)order fulfillment systems, (b) inventory management systems, (c) pricingsystems, and (d) promotion systems to accrue the benefits described inthe previous paragraph.

Often a Seller, such as a manufacturer, desires to determine the sellingprice of specific Products being offered for sale by other onlineSellers, and their current inventory levels of those Products,especially if the other Sellers are the Seller's own distributors. This,however, is not easy. Such information may be gathered by visiting theonline sales sites of various Sellers (distributors) and browsing orexecuting queries on each of those sales sites to extract pricinginformation. However, the integration of the sales systems and inventorymanagement systems of the various distributors and retailers of aProduct manufacturer makes it possible for the manufacturer to extractpricing and inventory information from the various distributors andretailers. It is also possible for the manufacturer to not only providethe distributors and retailers with a centrally maintained and sharedset of product information and marketing collateral, but also provideforecasts of future pricing changes, delivery schedules, manufacturingschedules and inventory levels.

Another benefit of such integration is the ability to controlpromotions. For example, the integration of sales and inventory systemsfrom multiple sellers such as those of a manufacturer and themanufacturer's distributors and retailers would make it possible tocontrol the flow of promotional offerings (coupons, rebates, etc.) in anautomated way that would also permit adjusting the promotional offeringsdynamically to meet sales targets. In such an integrated environment,the adjustments of promotional offerings is driven by severalparameters, including the volume of sales from the distributors andretailers, the product inventory levels at various shelves andwarehouses maintained by the manufacturer and distributors, the shelflife of the products, etc. In the online internet based salesenvironment, the value of coupons and rebates dispensed to Buyers arethus easily tracked altered dynamically.

The integration of sales systems from multiple sellers, especially theintegration of sales systems of manufacturers and their distributors,makes it possible to determine the sale prices for similar products fromdifferent retailers and distributors that sell the same family ofproducts from a manufacturer.

The partners of an integrated channel can retrieve configuration relatedinformation from the Manufacturer's configuration system, via theIntegrated Channel Service Manager. Such information may also beselectively cached by the Integrated Channel Service Manager. The sameis true for Pricing information. Similarly, catalogs of products may bemaintained by the manufacturer which are then accessed by the resellers,distributors and retailers via the Integrated Channel Service Manager,and optionally directly from the manufacturer environment incoordination with the Integrated Channel Service Manager.

The integration of sales, order fulfillment, inventory managementsystems, pricing systems and promotion systems from various Sellingentities that form a part of a manufacturer's channel organization isachieved by (a) specifying interactions between these systems, (b)identifying information exchange (c) specifying programming interfaces(APIs) and protocols for information exchange and (d) constructingtransactional systems that support such interactions based on theprotocols.

The interactions between the various systems are expressed as Use-Casesand scenarios. The Use-Cases also capture details of informationexchange. Information exchange is typically expressed in terms ofbusiness objects such as Quotes, Line Items, Shopping Carts, Prices,Discounts, Orders, Contracts, etc. that are exchanged between systems.The actual transfer of information is carried out in one of two ways:(1) using XML based information structures for transfer of structureddata between systems or (2) exchanging references to objects that aresaved or instantiated in a common data exchange layer that is accessibleto all participating systems.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the Integrated ChannelService Manager is capable of interacting with Seller's systems(manufacturers, resellers, distributors and retailers) employing aSalesBridge software that is installed on each of the Seller's systems.The SalesBridge software is used by the Integrated Channel ServiceManager to execute queries sent to the Seller's systems from theIntegrated Channel Service Manager. The Seller systems of themanufacturers, resellers, distributors and retailers, in response,return shopping carts with prices back to the Integrated Channel ServiceManager. In general, the SalesBridge is used by the Integrated ChannelService Manager as a remote database layer that is capable oftranslating queries received from the Integrated Channel Service Managerinto queries and processes that retrieve the requested information, suchas configuration, pricing and inventory, from the Seller's Sales andother software.

The Integrated Channel Service Manager includes one or more web serversoftware components with which Buyers' computers interact, one or moreApplication server software components that provide various Salesservices to Buyers accessing them over the internet, and one or moreSales databases that is used to save various kinds of information suchas customer profile, saved quotes, product categories, etc.

Among other things, the Integrated Channel Service Manager also supportsproduct category selection, search query formulation, instant coupon andrebate processing, shopping cart comparison, composite shopping cartreview, shopping cart pricing and saved quote re-pricing, quotepersistence and query persistence, scheduled delivery information fromBuyers, customer profile auto transactions, opportunity management andsales agent support, automatic registration of products on behalf ofBuyers, and Warranty management. In addition, it also includes aSalesBridge software interface that makes it possible to interact withthe Seller's systems.

The Integrated Channel Service Manager activities include identifyingpotential Sellers for Buyers based on the Buyer's preferences and theactual inventory levels of the Sellers in the Channel. In addition, itidentifies one or more Seller systems in the Channel as potentialparticipants in a sale. Should the Buyer decide to consummate a salebased on the recommendation of Sellers by the Integrated Channel ServiceManager, the Seller systems participating in the sale are informed oftheir role in fulfilling the Buyer's order by the Integrated ChannelService Manager. Subsequently, the order fulfillment systems of theSellers are queried by the Integrated Channel Service Manager toretrieve order status information on behalf of the Buyer.

The Integrated Channel Service Manager assists Buyers in generating aquery for subsequent submission of those queries to Seller's systems.Queries can take the form of old saved quotes or shopping carts, couponsselected, rebates selected, query text, third party shopping carts,sales brochures, persistent queries, etc. The Integrated Channel ServiceManager preprocesses Buyer specified queries and delivers them toselected Seller systems that are identified based on one or more searchcriteria including, in some cases, product categories, customerprofiles, inventory levels, pricing information, etc.

When the Seller's systems respond with product and pricing information,for example, with priced shopping carts that include all or a subset ofthe Buyer's product list, the Integrated Channel Service Managerpresents the information to Buyer for interaction with the Buyer.Optionally, such information is presented as a comparison of productsand prices.

Typically, if a Buyer's order cannot be fulfilled by one individualSeller, the Integrated Channel Service Manager responds to Buyer'sspecification of product and pricing selection by interacting with oneor more corresponding Seller's systems to complete the salestransactions. Subsequently, the Integrated Channel Service Managerperforms post sales functions which selectively include registration,warranties, updates, maintenance contracts, opportunity management etc.Opportunity management is employed to generate additional sales orrepeat sales.

In one embodiment, in order to share information in the channel, theIntegrated Channel Service Manager provides an information exchangelayer that is populated with relevant data extracted from each of theparticipants in the Integrated Channel. Such information is lateraccessed by other participants under the control and coordination of theIntegrated Channel Service Manager. The information exchange layer isimplemented using an object-oriented database, objects of informationbeing transferred to or retrieved from the participants of an IntegratedChannel as XML based structured data. In another embodiment, theinformation exchange layer maintained by the Integrated Channel ServiceManager is an object-oriented layer of software and associatedprocessing software implemented over a relational database.

The Integrated Channel Service Manager thus makes it possible to providea Buyer with a quote for the set of products the Buyer desires, thequote being assembled from information extracted from one or moreparticipants of the Integrated Channel System and including products andprices provided by one or more of such participants. When such a quoteis found acceptable by the Buyer and the Buyer places an order based onthe quote provided, the Integrated Channel Service Manager disassemblesthe quote to provide relevant portions of the quote to the actualparticipant selling the product to the Buyer as sub-quotes, and thenforwards the sub-quotes to the participants involved. The IntegratedChannel Service Manager selectively, when required, executes credit cardprocessing to execute a single sales transaction for the Buyer thatcovers all of the sub-quotes, and thus stands in and executes salestransactions on behalf of all the participants. In addition, orderstatus information is retrieved, as necessary and when required, toenable the Buyer to follow-up on the order placed.

FIG. 24 is a schematic diagram of an Integrated Channel Systemcomprising an Integrated Channel Service Manager and a manufacturerenvironment. The manufacturer environment comprises a data warehouse, adata mining system, and a SalesBridge software component, a Pricingsystem and an Order fulfillment system (and other Configuration andInventory Systems not shown). The Integrated Channel System furthercomprises a Reseller system for Reseller A comprising an inventorysystem and an order system, a Reseller system for Distributor Bcomprising a Seller's system, and a Retailer system for Retailer Ccomprising a Seller's system.

In general, the Integrated Channel Service Manager communicates withSalesBridge software integrated with individual Seller systems.Specifically, the Integrated Channel Service Manager communicates withthe SalesBridge software installed with each of the Seller systems,namely, the manufacturer environment, Reseller A, Distributor B, andRetailer C.

More specifically, the Integrated Channel Service Manager sends queriesrelated to order status, inventory levels, pricing, and productconfiguration to the manufacturer environment and receives informationfrom the manufacturer environment. It also selectively sends informationrelated to product sales, pricing, inventory, order status, etc.retrieved from Reseller A and Distributor B to the manufacturerenvironment. In addition, the Integrated Channel Service Managerfacilitates the selective exchange of sales, inventory, pricing,configuration, order status, etc. between the manufacturer environment,the Reseller A, Distributor B and Retailer C. Such selective exchange ofinformation between the manufacturer environment, Reseller A,Distributor B and Retailer C occurs via the SalesBridge softwareintegrated with their respective systems, under the supervision orcontrol of the Integrated Channel Service Manager.

As discussed above, quite often, manufacturers of products employseveral distributors, resellers and retailers to sell their products.Often these distributors and retailers have their own internet salespresence and endeavor to sell the manufacturers' products on theinternet. One of the common problems faced by these distributors andretailers is their inability to assure Buyers of the availability ofproducts, whether the product is coming from their own or themanufacturer's inventory. This causes problems during order fulfillmentactivities after a Buyer makes a purchase and delay in delivery follows.In general, manufacturers do not have the ability to determine the salesexecuted by their various retailers and distributors. This causes (theSeller) problems in determining production targets.

These problems are solved by integrating the sales, order fulfillmentand manufacturing systems of all sellers in the channel, as shown, forexample in FIG. 24. Such integration is facilitated by the IntegratedChannel Service Manager and the individual SalesBridge softwareincorporated in the software of each of the partners in the channel.

SalesBridge software, in addition to facilitating sales transactions andproviding a querying interface, also provides support for the followingservices:

Mapping tool

Data WareHousing

Data Mining

As sales software and the ERP market becomes more mature, a criticalneed arises for tools that allow two communicating systems to query eachother and selectively exchange data. An obvious example of this is thescenario where a company is using SAP as their back-office system, andwishes to make it interact with the SalesBridge software. An overridingconcern for customers will probably be SalesBridge integration withtheir current system. The front office suite (e.g., Multi SellerInterface System (MSIS>> or the Integrated Channel System would need tobe able to send quotes, configurations, pricing details, etc. to aseller having SAP for order fulfillment, inventory and manufacturing.The main point of integration then becomes the data exchange that needsto take place: The SalesBridge software translates its quote object andits config object into the details the SAP system needs, and sends thosedetails to the SAP database. In addition, the SalesBridge softwaretranslates queries sent by the Integrated Channel System or MSIS intoqueries that can be executed on the databases or back-office systemsavailable at the Seller (e.g., the manufacturer, reseller, distributoror retailer).

SalesBridge MapTool (or simply MapTool) is a data mapping system ortool. It consists of the three pieces mentioned above:

a) a GUI and programmatic events that allow a consultant to mapSalesBridge objects to/from fields and tables in a foreign database;

b) a data transfer engine which (at run time) connects to the foreigndatabase and allows the actual transfer of information between the twosystems; and

c) a report kit that provides reporting functionality.

In addition, the SalesBridge software makes use of some of the artifactscaptured by the SalesBridge MapTool to extract information, saveinformation and to modify information, as necessary, in the database orassociated software systems at the Seller's environment.

Details of the Mapping Activity

The mapping between the Seller's database or run-time systems and theSalesBridge component is performed as follows:

1. The MapTool, using JDBC or ODBC (or JDBC/ODBC) based programmingapi's, interacts with the foreign database (Seller's database) andretrieves schema information using Seller provided username andpasswords.

2. The MapTool accesses SalesBridge metadata information from theSalesBridge software (or retrieves them from the MSIS system) toidentify mapping requirements.

3. The MapTool facilitates the creation of mapping information formapping the SalesBridge metadata to the Seller's database.

4. It also identifies mapping necessary but not possible, so that it maybe remedied via additional tables created in the Seller's and orSalesBridge environment.

5. It also facilitates identification of metadata mapping that is to besupported by programmatically creating mapping code components.

Once the mapping is created, it is saved in the SalesBridge component atthe Seller's environment.

Mapping is used, for example, for all the following types of informationhandled by the SalesBridge software:

Inventory

Product Information

Configuration

Pricing

Supplier Related Information

Promotional Information

Order Fulfillment

Transaction Completion (Credit Card Info, etc.)

Order Status

Shipping

Billing

Other . . .

While SalesBridge enables the Seller to execute sales, inventory andother related activities, it is desirable to facilitate the collection,processing and archival of such information over time in a DataWarehouse. The SalesBridge software, via its MapTool, makes it possibleto not only map sales, inventory and other related information into aData Warehouse, but also makes it possible to populate such a DataWarehouse with relevant information at run-time. This enables theSalesBridge software to act as an interface to the Data Warehouse forother systems on an Integrated Channel System or an MSIS system.

Thus, SalesBridge Data Warehouse capabilities include:

Providing a means of creating a mapping between sales, inventory andother related information and a data warehouse.

Providing means to save such mapping information in the SalesBridge.

Providing the means to selectively populate such a Data Warehouse atrun-time.

Providing means to retrieve information from the Data Warehouse usingthe SalesBridge querying interface as well as by a special DataWarehouse service.

Additionally, the SalesBridge software can be installed with its ownData Warehouse so as to provide warehousing services to the Seller.

Data Mining is supported by SalesBridge by providing an ad hoc queryinginterface to a Data Warehouse that is populated. Such ad hoc queryinginterface makes it possible for other managers of information in theIntegrated Channel system or at the Seller's environment to extractinformation to enhance their decision making capabilities. In addition,third party decision support systems are provided an interface tointeract with the Data Mining service.

The partners of an integrated channel can perform Data Miningtransactions and retrieve configuration, pricing, different types offorecasts, sales, marketing, and other related information from theManufacturer's Data Warehouse using the Data Mining tool. The access tosuch information is coordinated by the Integrated Channel ServiceManager. Such information may also be selectively cached by theIntegrated Channel Service Manager. The same is true for access toarchived information maintained by the manufacturer at the DataWarehouse. Similarly, statistical information on products and sales maybe maintained by the manufacturer which is then accessed by resellers,distributors and retailers via the Integrated Channel Service Manager,the SalesBridge software and the Data Mining Tool. Optionally, areseller or retailer can directly access such information from themanufacturer environment by interacting with the SalesBridge software incoordination with the Integrated Channel Service Manager.

The integration of a Data Warehouse and Data Mining tool that forms apart of a manufacturer's channel organization is achieved by a)specifying interactions between these systems and the SalesBridge, b)identifying information exchange, c) specifying programming interfaces(APIs) and protocols for information exchange between these systems andthe SalesBridge; and d) constructing transactional systems that supportsuch interactions based on the protocols.

The interactions between the various systems are expressed as Use-Casesand scenarios. The Use-Cases also capture details of informationexchange. Information exchange is typically expressed in terms ofbusiness objects such as Quotes, Line Items, Shopping Carts, Prices,Discounts, Orders, Contracts, etc. that are exchanged between systems.The actual transfer of information is carried out in one of severalways: a) using XML based information structures for transfer ofstructured data between these systems and the SalesBridge software, b)exchanging references to objects that are saved or instantiated in acommon data exchange layer that is accessible to all participatingsystems, c) providing a query interface on the Data warehouse and theData Mining tool that is accessed by the SalesBridge software, or d)providing a set of application programming interfaces using programswritten to enable the SalesBridge software to interact with the DataWarehouse and the Data Mining tool.

The SalesBridge software is used by the Integrated Channel ServiceManager to execute Data Mining queries sent to the Seller's systems fromthe Integrated Channel Service Manager or from other resellers andretailers in the Channel. The Seller's systems of the manufacturers,resellers, distributors and retailers, in response, return the retrievedinformation, if any, back to the Integrated Channel Service Manager orto the Seller that sent the query. In general, the SalesBridge softwareis used by the Integrated Channel Service Manager as a remote databaselayer that is capable of translating queries received from theIntegrated Channel Service Manager into queries and processes thatretrieve the requested information from the Data Mining tool or directlyfrom the Data Warehouse.

The SalesBridge software is used to populate data into the DataWarehouse, either directly or via a pipeline of processing software thatmassages the data before entering it into the Data Warehouse.

Although a system and method according to the present invention has beendescribed in connection with the preferred embodiment, it is notintended to be limited to the specific form set forth herein, but on thecontrary, it is intended to cover such alternatives, modifications, andequivalents, as can be reasonably included within the spirit and scopeof the invention as defined by this disclosure and appended diagrams.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A sales portal system supporting aplurality of buyer computers used by a corresponding plurality ofbuyers, the sales portal system comprising: a server systemcommunicatively coupled during operation to: a first seller's computerused by a first seller to support sales of a product, the product havinga first description and a first price, both the first description andthe first price being stored in a first database on the first seller'scomputer having a first storage format; a second seller's computer usedby a second seller to support sales of the product having a seconddescription and a second price, both the second description and thesecond price being stored in a second database on the second seller'scomputer having a second storage format that differs from the firststorage format, and the first seller being a competitor of the secondseller; and one or more of the plurality of buyer computers, wherein:the server system responds to a query received from one of the pluralityof buyer computers by delivering a first seller rating and a secondseller rating, the first description and the first price from the firstdatabase, and the second description and the second price from thesecond database, to the one of the plurality of buyer computers,including reformatting at least two of the first description, the firstprice, the second description, and the second price; and the serversystem managing a sales transaction of the product from one of the firstseller and the second seller as identified by the one of the pluralityof buyer computers.
 2. The sales portal system of claim 1, furthercomprising storage that stores at least a portion of the firstdescription and the first price and at least a portion of the seconddescription and the second price correspondingly received from the firstseller's computer and the second seller's computer.
 3. The sales portalsystem of claim 1, wherein the server system, based upon the query,accesses the first description and first price and the seconddescription and second price from the first seller's computer and thesecond seller's computer, respectively.
 4. The sales portal system ofclaim 1, wherein the first seller rating differs from the second sellerrating.
 5. The sales portal system of claim 1, wherein the server systemis operable to: process payment for the sales transaction; and transmitthe payment to a corresponding one of the first seller and the secondseller.
 6. The sales portal system of claim 5, wherein the server systemis further operable to assess a fee for facilitating the salestransaction.
 7. The sales portal system of claim 6, wherein the fee isbased upon value of the payment.
 8. The sales portal system of claim 5,wherein the payment processed is a credit card payment.
 9. The salesportal system of claim 8, wherein the server system spreads the salestransaction over multiple credit cards.
 10. The sales portal system ofclaim 1, wherein the server system further facilitates warrantyregistration for the product.
 11. The sales portal system of claim 1,the server system further: accesses at least one promotion correspondingto the product; and applies the at least one promotion to the salestransaction.
 12. The sales portal system of claim 11, wherein the atleast one promotion comprises one or both of an instant coupon and arebate.
 13. The sales portal system of claim 11, wherein the serversystem accesses the at least one promotion by: querying the buyer'scomputer; and receiving the at least one promotion from the buyer'scomputer.
 14. The sales portal system of claim 1, where the serversystem further interacts with one or both of the first seller's computerand the second seller's computer to identify the buyer.
 15. The salesportal system of claim 1, where the server system further interacts withthe buyer's computer to identify the buyer.
 16. The sales portal systemof claim 1, where the server system: identifies the buyer; accesses userprofile data based upon the identity of the buyer; and selects the firstseller and the second seller based upon the user profile data.
 17. Thesales portal system of claim 1, where the server system identifies thebuyer for subsequent presentation of promotions.
 18. The sales portalsystem of claim 1, wherein the server system presents a shopping cart tothe buyer's computer having the product represented therein.
 19. Thesales portal system of claim 18, wherein the server system uses customerprofile data corresponding to the buyer to create the shopping cart. 20.The sales portal system of claim 18, wherein the server system presentsdelivery options for the product with the shopping cart.
 21. The salesportal system of claim 1, wherein the server system: receives a queryrelating to one or more desired products; and selects the product basedupon the query.
 22. The sales portal system of claim 21, wherein theselecting the product based upon the query is further based uponavailable inventory.
 23. The sales portal system of claim 1, wherein theserver system further presents shipping costs to the buyer's computerrespective to the first seller and the second seller.
 24. The salesportal system of claim 1, wherein the server system transmits an emailto the buyer's computer confirming the sales transaction.
 25. The salesportal system of claim 1, wherein the server system uses a commoninterface to access both the first seller's computer and the secondseller's computer.
 26. The sales portal system of claim 25, wherein thecommon interface to the first seller's computer and the second seller'scomputer resides on the server system.
 27. The sales portal system ofclaim 25, wherein the common interface comprises: a first interfaceresident on the first seller's computer; and a second interface residenton the second seller's computer.
 28. A method of supporting a pluralityof buyer computers used by a corresponding plurality of buyers by aserver system, the method comprising: communicatively coupling to afirst seller's computer used by a first seller to support sales of aproduct, the product having a first description and a first price, boththe first description and the first price being stored in a firstdatabase on the first seller's computer having a first storage format;and communicatively coupling to a second seller's computer used by asecond seller to support sales of the product having a seconddescription and a second price, both the second description and thesecond price being stored in a second database on the second seller'scomputer having a second storage format that differs from the firststorage format, and the first seller being a competitor of the secondseller; and responding to a query received from one of the plurality ofbuyer computers by delivering a first seller rating and a second sellerrating, the first description and the first price from the firstdatabase, and the second description and the second price from thesecond database, to the one of the plurality of buyer computers,including reformatting at least two of the first description, the firstprice, the second description, and the second price; and managing asales transaction of the product from one of the first seller and thesecond seller as identified by the one of the plurality of buyercomputers.
 29. The method of claim 28, further comprising storing atleast a portion of the first description and the first price and atleast a portion of the second description and the second pricecorrespondingly received from the first seller's computer and the secondseller's computer.
 30. The method of claim 28, further comprising, basedupon the query, accessing the first description and first price and thesecond description and second price from the first seller's computer andthe second seller's computer, respectively.
 31. The method of claim 28,wherein the first seller rating differs from the second seller rating.32. The method of claim 28, further comprising: processing payment forthe sales transaction; and transmitting the payment to a correspondingone of the first seller and the second seller.
 33. The method of claim32, further comprising assessing a fee for facilitating the salestransaction.
 34. The method of claim 33, wherein the fee is based uponvalue of the payment.
 35. The method of claim 32, wherein the paymentprocessed is a credit card payment.
 36. The method of claim 35, furthercomprising spreading the sales transaction over multiple credit cards.37. The method of claim 28, further comprising facilitating warrantyregistration for the product.
 38. The method of claim 28, furthercomprising: accessing at least one promotion corresponding to theproduct; and applying the at least one promotion to the salestransaction.
 39. The method of claim 38, wherein the at least onepromotion comprises one or both of an instant coupon and a rebate. 40.The method of claim 38, wherein accessing the at least one promotioncomprises: querying the buyer's computer; and receiving the at least onepromotion from the buyer's computer.
 41. The method of claim 28, furthercomprising interacting with at least one of the first seller's computerand the second seller's computer to identify the buyer.
 42. The methodof claim 28, further comprising interacting with the buyer's computer toidentify the buyer.
 43. The method of claim 28, further comprising:identifying the buyer; accessing user profile data based upon theidentity of the buyer; and selecting the first seller and the secondseller based upon the user profile data.
 44. The method of claim 28,further comprising identifying the buyer for subsequent presentation ofpromotions.
 45. The method of claim 28, comprising presenting a shoppingcart to the buyer's computer having the product represented therein. 46.The method of claim 45, further comprising using customer profile datacorresponding to the buyer to create the shopping cart.
 47. The methodof claim 45, further comprising presenting delivery options for theproduct with the shopping cart.
 48. The method of claim 28, furthercomprising: receiving a query relating to one or more desired products;and selecting the product based upon the query.
 49. The method of claim48, wherein the selecting the product based upon the query is furtherbased upon available inventory.
 50. The method of claim 28, furthercomprising presenting shipping costs to the buyer's computer respectiveto the first seller and the second seller.
 51. The method of claim 28,further comprising transmitting an email to the buyer's computerconfirming the sales transaction.
 52. The method of claim 28, furthercomprising using a common interface to access both the first seller'scomputer and the second seller's computer.
 53. The method of claim 52,wherein the common interface to the first seller's computer and thesecond seller's computer is locally accessed.
 54. The method of claim52, wherein using the common interface comprises: using a firstinterface resident on the first seller's computer; and using a secondinterface resident on the second seller's computer.